Assisted garage door opening mechanisms are used to automatically open a garage door without human intervention. They help to assist opening/closing garage doors or simply allow remote actuation of a garage door (e.g. from inside the car with a wireless transmitter).
The assisted garage door opening mechanism is commonly installed inside the garage and is mechanically connected to the garage door to alternatively move the garage door up and down.
A locking mechanism is usually installed on the garage door to manually lock the garage door in a closed position and secure the goods stored in the garage. The locking mechanism can be a simple steel rod secured to the garage door and selectively engaging an associated opening in a garage doorframe thus preventing the garage door from opening.
The locking mechanism, when engaged, prevents people outside the garage to open the door but also prevents the assisted garage door opening mechanism to open the garage door. The assisted garage door opening mechanism will force against the locking mechanism if the assisted garage door opening mechanism is activated when the garage door is locked. This happens because the assisted garage door opening mechanism cannot make the difference between a locked and unlocked garage door.
Known assisted garage door opening mechanisms can be equipped with end-of-travel sensors. An end-of-travel sensor senses when the garage door reaches its opened position and another end-of-travel sensor senses when the garage door reaches its closed position. The opened position end-of-travel sensor sends a signal to the assisted garage door opening mechanism to stop opening the garage door. In contrast, the closed position end-of-travel sensor sends a signal to the assisted garage door opening mechanism to stop closing the garage door. In both situations the movement of the garage door is stopped because it has reached its desired position. Unfortunately, these end-of-travel sensors are not helpful in preventing the assisted garage door opening mechanism to try to open a locked garage door because the garage door is already in its closed position. The closed position end-of-travel sensor being already activated and the open position end-of-travel sensor being not activated the assisted garage door opening mechanism infers it can move the garage door upward despite the garage door might be locked.
Therefore, a need has been found for an improved garage door opening mechanism. Similarly, a need has arisen for an improved garage door opening mechanism that will not enable to move a locked garage door or a garage door that is blocked. There is also a need for a retrofit module that can be added to a garage door opening mechanism to prevent the garage door to open a locked garage door.